I’ve been making the odd visit to the village of Beckley, a few miles north of Oxford, to draw their church.

Beckley is on the upper slopes of hills overlooking floodplains at Otmoor, with views to the north. It is a quiet place, full of very nice cottages, houses and the odd historic Manor house. The route of a Roman road passes through the village and the church was originally Norman. The village also has a good pub – The Abingdon Arms -which is now community owned.

I sat out to draw the church, which was a little tricky. Initially I perched by the boundary wall on sloping ground but I did manage to get a reasonable drawing done eventually.

A quick walk around the village also revealed a couple of other features – one a thatched duck on the ridgeline of one of the cottages and the other that the old local phone-box has been used to house a make-shift art display.